Archive for the ‘Article Submission Service’ Category

Use Article Marketing Automation Plus Blogs and Social Media to Build Your Online Business

Friday, June 4th, 2010

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It’s important, as an internet marketer, to have many irons in the fire to build your business. Relying on one tactic only limits the exposure you can gain for your business. Efficient marketers employ article distribution with article marketing automation, blogs, and social media to build their ventures.

Article Distribution with Article Marketing Automation

Widespread distribution of your writing is essential to building tons of backlinks. You want people with an affinity for your products linking back to your website. If you have no website, you want people linking back to the websites of affiliate programs you promote.

You need two things to facilitate this backlinking. The first is content of excellent quality that speaks to the needs of readers.

The second is premium distribution from a quality content distribution service. These two work in tandem to produce significant traffic for you.

Your articles must engage your readers with thoughtful insight that address subjects your niche finds interesting. Fluff content that offers nothing new to readers is not a characteristic of quality content writing. Therefore, it behooves you to do the necessary research to create information-rich content.

Next, you have to get your work to the most popular publishers on the Web. A top-notch article submission service does this cost-effectively for you.

They utilize their extensive distribution list to do this. This list contains the best publishers across numerous categories.

They also provide article marketing automation so you can schedule all your distribution ahead of time. This helps you manage your time better as an internet marketer. Quality writing and far reaching autopilot distribution are that one-two punch for article marketing success.

Blogs

Blogs are “right now” writing. They let you get the message out fast about your online business and products you offer.

If you don’t have a blog you could go to a provider this minute. In fact, in a few minutes you could have one up and running.

That means you could be engaging in a new promotional effort today for your business. It’s that new iron in the fire.

It can work in concert with your articles. If you write a new piece and it publishes, you can let your blog readers know about it immediately.

This is important because you drive traffic from your blog to your informative content. Your blog readers experience your quality content writing published by someone else. They then perceive you as an authoritative voice in your niche.

From your blog and your articles they link to your website. They have an interest in your articles and posts and decide to find out more about you. That’s the pre-sold traffic you need that converts to customers on your website.

Blogs are also great places to present quick product reviews and in-depth product reports. Imbedded in each of these types of posts are links to your website or affiliate program website. In addition, you can update your blog several times a week to keep your readers up-to-date on promotions and new products you’re offering.

Social Media

Diverse social media portals are extremely popular these days. You probably don’t have the time to use them all or even most of them. However, it does help your promotional efforts to use some of them on a regular basis.

Again, you can promote your writing through your social media accounts. An example is the content you submitted to a quality content distribution service.

Once they distribute your articles you can promote them through your social networking accounts. You do this via the user-friendly links from your author account that you have with the service.

As you engage in good discussions on social media sites, you can promote your business and articles. Only do this as a way to offer good advice and resources to others. Your goal is to help them secure the quality information they desire.

There’s nothing wrong with attaching your website or article link in a discussion. This is as an addendum to the quality comments you already put forth.

If you expound like a blatant commercial on a social media site you get the “spammer” label. It’s a signal to others to avoid you.

Be respectful, helpful, and full of useful information on social media sites. Engage in intelligent conversation with the needs of others in mind. It’s the way to build a good reputation and credibility as an online marketer.

Use article distribution with article marketing automation, blogs, and social media to grow your business faster. This multi-pronged approach, along with other strategies garners traffic for your website. Once that pre-sold traffic arrives, you can further the selling process and grow your income accordingly.

To your success,

Mike Lawson

Mike Lawson is a freelance consultant to internet marketers. His service provides quality reviews for article marketing automation programs. Read review of Content Crooner.

Follow Us on Twitter: ContentCrooner

“Crooner Rocks”

Why Content Producers Need Article Marketing Automation and Other Features of a Good Service

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Writing content for widespread distribution on the Internet demands a plan for your writing. Knowing the needs of your target market ensures you create articles they crave.

Article distribution for securing significant backlinks demands a plan as well. That plan should include article marketing automation and other features a good service offers.

Many article submission sites exist on the Web. It’s your responsibility to choose the best service for your business. A premium service has certain features which give internet marketers good ROI for their investment.

Here are those features:

Article Marketing Automation

This is a mechanism to get your work out to your target market in a regular orderly fashion. You input your content set once; you then schedule when you want those pieces to go out to publishers. You schedule distribution for up to a year in advance.

This feature frees time up for other activities, including some R&R time away from your PC. There’s often much to do when it comes to online marketing. Anything that simplifies your operations so you’re not always working is something that’s beneficial.

Mobile Capabilities

A quality content distribution service only requires you having a password to get into their members area. Therefore, wherever you are, you can access their service via the Internet.

A good service doesn’t require you downloading and installing software. You can only engage in article submission from your home PC if they require you to download software.

Being able to submit your work from anywhere at any time is convenient. It’s a desirable option for busy internet marketers and writers who are always on the go. Any campaign your running doesn’t have to be on hold just because you’re traveling.

A Comprehensive Distribution List

When it comes to submitting, you want abundant choice in publishers. You create content on a host of topics suited to the different affiliate products you promote. You need publishers suited to each topic.

Having a limited list to submit too means some of your articles won’t be a good match for publishers. Certain articles you write may be highly specialized.

They only fit niche specialty publications with a select readership. A service with a significant publishers list will have these types of publications in their stable.

Unlimited Submission of Content for One Fee

This is an attractive feature, especially if you’re a prolific writer. A quality content distribution service charges writers’ one fee, once, for a subscription. They offer monthly, yearly, or lifetime subscription packages for an affordable one-time fee.

Paying per submission is a quick route to inflating your promotions budget. So is aligning yourself with a service that charges additional fees for going beyond their stipulated submission level.

These days, budgeting wisely for marketing is essential to surviving as a business. Unlimited submission means creating and submitting to your heart’s content without paying anything extra.

Quality Review Process

Your writing will only be better when another set of eyes gives it a look. A good service provides expert editors who understand what constitutes quality work.

They know what publishers require and what causes rejection of content. Knowing what not to do in writing is as important as knowing what to do.

An experienced editor offers advice and tips on the tone of your writing. They caution writers to avoid creating blatantly promotional pieces.

They know readers don’t want to read content that sounds like a late-night hyperactive TV commercial. People want useful information presented objectively and an editor shows writers how to achieve this goal.

Keeps Attuned to New Publishers

A good content distributor always knows “who’s who” in the online publishing world. They look for new players on the scene. When these players arrive, the service gets your previously submitted work to them.

That’s a service working behind-the-scenes for you while you engage in other activities. Your older content continues to reach new readers, without you having to do anything.

That’s distribution done right. It’s something that builds links back to your website consistently each month.

It takes the headache away of having to search out new publishers yourself. Remember, any time saved in performing distribution is time you have to do something else. Of course, that something else should always include more content production for future campaigns.

Utilize article distribution with article marketing automation and other features that a service offers. They facilitate the exposure you desire for your writing and your website links. This exposure leads to pre-sold traffic that is essential to building an online business with staying power.

To your success,

Mike Lawson

Mike Lawson is a freelance consultant to internet marketers. His service provides quality reviews for article marketing automation programs. Read review of Content Crooner.

Follow Us on Twitter: ContentCrooner

“Crooner Rocks”

How Article Marketing Automation and Other Initiatives Grow Your Cyber Venture

Friday, May 21st, 2010

In internet marketing, the riches go to those who engage in consistent effort to grow their businesses. The get-rich-quick schemes are exactly what they purport to be, schemes.

Building your cyber venture, promoting affiliate or other products, means hard work on different initiatives. Working on article distribution with article marketing automation, and other web initiatives, does pay dividends.

Autopilot Distribution of Your Content While You Sleep

That sounds good doesn’t it? It’s not a pipe dream, in fact, it’s something serious internet marketers engage in all the time. Why do they? They do so because they understand there are only so many hours weekly for accomplishing marketing goals.

The best online entrepreneurs perform multiple marketing duties. They don’t rely on just one avenue for promoting their products and services. They write for blogs, websites, and for their email campaigns.

They write advertisements and engage in submitting their links to directories. They also make videos and contribute to social forums. Therefore, they can’t spend all their time distributing articles to different publishers.

Through the article marketing automation tool from a quality content distribution service, they save time. They schedule distribution of their quality content upfront.

While they sleep, or do other work, their articles go out to Web publishers like clockwork. It’s automatic, and set to build their income even when they’re not actually working.

Unique Banner Creation and Ad Writing

Whether you promote your own products or products from affiliate programs, you want to be unique. This ensures you stand out from your business competition.

Banner creation programs exist whereby you create banners suited to your particular business. Your banners don’t have to look like the other affiliate banners a host of affiliates use.

In addition, writing your own ads accomplishes the same goal. Focus your ad writing using your own voice and style. Match this to your blog and website content.

In this way, you project a unified voice and message to your niche. This presents you as a professional with a clear message to your intended audience.

Create an Informative Monthly Newsletter

You’re already a quality content producer and distribute your articles to your niche. Why not write a monthly newsletter to distribute to them as well.

It doesn’t have to be the size of a Shakespearean play. In fact, a couple of pages are sufficient.

Send out this newsletter and include links to your website or affiliate sites. Don’t make the newsletter one giant commercial, though.

Make your newsletter writing as informative as your article writing. You still have to offer useful information to your readers, no matter the platform you’re using.

Your newsletter can include detailed specs on an affiliate product along with product comparison reviews. It can include updates on product upgrades.

It’s good to have a few short pieces promoting nothing. These are informational pieces on topics related to your products but not actively promoting them.

Blog Commentary

Let people know about your cyber venture through making comments on blogs. Browse blog directories to find blogs of your niche. Check these blogs out by reading the various posts that reside on them.

After perusing and reading, comment on some posts. Be respectful and offer top-notch advice, tips, and resources. Include an affiliate or other link in your post.

Give insightful, informative comments that truly seek to contribute intelligently to the blog conversation. When people believe you are trying to help them they often link back to you.

Who knows, you may glean some useful information yourself from someone’s blog. It may be information that you can apply to your online business. Therefore, blog surfing can work for you in two ways.

Devote Some Time to Your Downline

Your cyber venture may include being a leader of other affiliate marketers. Set aside time each month to help them build their incomes. You contribute to your own success when you do this consistently.

You enjoy when others offer helpful advice. Maybe an editor at an article submission service helped you become a better content producer. Their tips paid off and you are benefitting from the increased pre-sold traffic heading your way.

You can offer helpful advice to your downline. This builds your reputation with them so they work harder for themselves and by extension you. Together, you both grow your incomes and develop a relationship of mutual respect as you do.

Make consistent effort in the above initiatives part of your monthly online business routine. Using article distribution with article marketing automation, in tandem with other tools, helps build traffic and income. It’s a way to get your cyber venture on a solid foundation for continued growth.

To your success,

Mike Lawson

Mike Lawson is a freelance consultant to internet marketers. His service provides quality reviews for article marketing automation programs. Read review of Content Crooner.

Follow Us on Twitter: ContentCrooner

“Crooner Rocks”

Article Distribution Using Article Marketing Automation

Friday, May 7th, 2010

It’s a competitive online business environment out there. Being an affiliate marketer, you need to use the quality resources available to build income streams.

Article distribution using article marketing automation is one of several resources for building your business. Used in tandem with other resources, it can help you grow your income faster.

The following are five ways to help you promote your affiliate products and affiliate programs. Set aside time each week to engage in at least one of these activities. Try them and develop processes suited to your working style so you benefit from these initiatives.

Here they are:

Article Marketing

This involves you being a consistent content producer. You write articles loaded with useful advice, tips, instruction, and plain old good information for your audience.

You use a quality content distribution service to get your work to market. They distribute your writing throughout cyberspace.

An excellent service provides article marketing automation. What is this exactly? This is you scheduling the distribution of your writing ahead of time. You submit your writing once and schedule when they go out, up to a year in advance.

Then you go your merry way onto other affiliate marketing work. Distribution happens automatically, on autopilot, when you’re not even thinking about it. This simplifies marketing and is a perfect example of excellent time management.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a way to build your affiliate income. It involves using existing social and other platforms to get the message out about your business.

Therefore, your links spread around the Internet. This is akin to getting extensive link exposure when you distribute your articles.

Viral marketing can involve sending out your eBook, brandable software, video clips, images, text messages, emails and such. The viral aspect comes from the spreading of your information. This can happen fast.

Consider an email, video, or text message you send with your link. Many people you send it to may forward it on to others. These people can then forward it on as well. That can add up to significant link distribution.

Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla marketing is a non-traditional way of promoting yourself. It involves creative marketing and requires an investment of time, energy, and imagination. Again, it’s the same as your quality content writing, which requires the same effort.

Guerilla marketing could involve you doing something as drastic as standing on a street corner in a “guerilla suit.” You have, in your hands, a host of product samples you’re giving out.

You’re attracting attention to yourself and your affiliate products. The point is, you’re engaging in an unconventional form of product promotion.

You can do guerilla marketing digitally as well. You send out unique, even wacky advertisements, ads, videos and such that startle.

The shock value provokes a reaction from your potential customers. Just go about it in a dignified, un-crass way so you don’t alienate your target market.

In Person Marketing

Talking, in person, to someone is still a great way to build your business. Take every opportunity to talk up your business, when and where appropriate. Someone you meet may need exactly what you’re promoting. They won’t know about it unless you tell them.

Consider numerous business events in your city or town. Your local business association may have various networking events throughout the year. Check a few out and talk about your business.

Meet up with others who work to promote various affiliate programs. Share tips and experiences. Let them know what you promote and you may secure a new downline member.

Blog Writing

Blog writing is a great way to keep your niche market current on your business. Blogs allow you to post information quickly. You can do this daily, even multiple times in a day. Provide useful information, of the quality you submit to an article submission service, and you build a following.

When you post on your blog, provide links to your affiliate parent’s site. Provide links back to your own website, where you can engage your readers further. You can offer product suggestions on your blog, as well as reviews.

You can then elaborate more on your website once people link back to it. You can offer product suggestions or additional helpful resources to your readers.

Explore the options available to you for building your affiliate business. Get writing and get that content ready for running multiple campaigns.

In addition, try other methods for building your business, in concert with article distribution using article marketing automation. Together, they generate that relevant traffic to your website that converts to customers.

To your success,

Mike Lawson

Mike Lawson is a freelance consultant to internet marketers. His service provides quality reviews for article marketing automation programs. Read review of Content Crooner.

Follow Us on Twitter: ContentCrooner

“Crooner Rocks”

Article Marketing Automation and 6 Other Features of a Quality Content Distribution Service

Friday, April 30th, 2010

As an affiliate marketer engaged in various affiliate programs, getting exposure for your business is crucial. A host of marketing initiatives exists that you can undertake to build your business. Article marketing is one of them. It’s an affordable way to gain link exposure, with article distribution using article marketing automation a major element.

Of course, other major elements make up this kind of marketing as well. All together, they work to ensure you receive maximum exposure for your writing. That leads to relevant backlinks to your website where you promote affiliate products.

The following are seven features of a good service:

1. Have a Huge List of Quality Publishers

A quality content distribution service works to secure and maintain a large list of good publishers. They align themselves with publishers across all disciplines. In this way, they present choice to you.

As a content producer, you write on a variety of topics. Each topic relates to a specific affiliate product you promote. Therefore, you need the availability of many publishers of diverse niches. You submit your work on a regular basis and get useful information to readers of those publications. This builds your reputation as someone knowledgeable in a certain field.

2. Offer Writing Resources

Whether you’re new to content producing, or experienced, it’s nice to have resources that help your writing. A good article submission site offers a best practices guide to their membership. This guide sets forth the style, format and other requirements of the Web’s top publishers. Following the tips in this guide expedites the publishing of your work.

A quality service also provides live editors who go over your pieces. Experienced in the article marketing discipline, they give expert advice on how to make your writing better.

3. Charge One Upfront Fee, Once, in a Subscription Period

A premier service doesn’t charge you per submission. They have a monthly, yearly, or lifetime membership plan. They tell you upfront exactly what they charge you for each. They don’t tack on additional fees; they don’t surprise you with other ‘administration’ fees and the like. You pay once and then don’t pay again until it’s time to renew.

4. Allow You Endless Submissions in a Subscription Period

A quality content distribution service encourages productivity. They charge the aforementioned one time fee for a subscription period and allow unlimited submissions. They don’t cap how many pieces you can submit.

Unlimited submissions are conducive to running multiple campaigns. That truly is a way to garner exposure for your business. Unlimited submissions are also conducive to staying within your affiliate marketing budget. The more you write and submit, the less it costs per submission to get your links coursing around the Web.

5. Helps You Utilize Social Media

The new social media sites are all the rage today. Love them or hate them, you probably need to use some of them to promote your business. Upon distribution of your writing, a quality service allows you to promote it through your social networking accounts.

They facilitate this via the user-friendly links they provide from your author account. Therefore, you instantly update others that you have a new piece published on a certain topic. That drives traffic to your article and subsequently from it to your website.

6. Offer Detailed Distribution and Exposure Reports

You need to know if your writing is paying off for you. Distribution and exposure reports let you know who is publishing what, concerning your work. You soon learn what’s resonating with publishers and readers.

Knowing what topics publishers and readers like helps you focus your efforts for your next campaign. Unpopular article topics mean focusing in another direction for your next efforts. These reports help you fine-tune your writing for success.

7. Offer Automation for “Always Happening” Distribution

A quality content distribution service encourages affiliate marketers to streamline their businesses. They enable them to go on autopilot through scheduling distribution of their work ahead of time. A writer can schedule distribution for up to one year in advance.

This makes running a business more efficient. Not having to schedule time each week for distribution activities means more time for other marketing. Time to engage in a variety of marketing activities means more chances to build multiple streams of affiliate income.

Explore what article marketing can do for you as a promoter of affiliate programs. Look for a service that offers article distribution using article marketing automation. Make sure they offer the other features as well. Then get to work using those features to build good income streams for years to come.

To your success,

Mike Lawson

Mike Lawson is a freelance consultant to internet marketers. His service provides quality reviews for article marketing automation programs. Read review of Content Crooner.

Follow Us on Twitter: ContentCrooner

“Crooner Rocks”

Article Marketing Promotes Use of Your Core Strengths for Better Business

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Michael Phelps wins 8th gold medal
Creative Commons License photo credit: bryangeek

Although we’d all like to think that we have fantastic abilities that span a great number of skill categories, the truth is that we’re experts in just a few areas.

Of course, you can write and you may have even found a few free article submission sites, but your business is guaranteed to suffer when you take time away from your core capabilities.

Employing the help of a professional article submission service ensures not only that your articles are well crafted and only submitted to verified sources for the greatest potency, it also promises that you’ll stick to your core strengths.

Highest Income-producing Activities

Take a few minutes and look through your accounts receivable—which factors produce the most amount of revenue for your company? Pinpointing these areas will help highlight the activities that you should invest the most time and effort into. However, there will be overlapping or several contributing factors to consider as well. Perhaps your article marketing produces the most revenue—this doesn’t necessarily mean you should dedicate all your time to that though. It might be the networking you’ve been doing with prospects that’s been getting people to read those articles. Get the picture?

Identifying Core Strengths

Is it more profitable to struggle at writing an article, dedicating five hours to what should be an hour-long task, or to employ your natural networking skills and actively generate new business contacts, taking just one hour to complete an hour-long task? Whether you want to refer to it as maintaining efficiency in the workplace or simply not wasting time, sticking to what you do best enables you to hit your target with less effort and greater strength. Do what you’re best at and then employ the help of others to supplement your core skills.

Improve Your Career Satisfaction

You can also look forward to a greater degree of career satisfaction when you work at what you’re best at. Of course, it can be very rewarding to overcome a challenge that falls outside of our usual realm of skills, but you’re sure to enjoy more consistent rewards when you build off of your strengths. Executing tasks that you excel at creates immense gratification because you’re using your top skills. An administrative assistant with a mind for management will feel like they’re suffocating in the workplace. Give them the opportunity to delegate a few tasks and they’ll breath easier.

Take a Mental Inventory

To help you get started you can take a mental inventory of what you’re good at. What comes easily to you? Start with a bird’s eye view such as determining that you’re good with numbers. Then take a closer look at this ability to see what tasks you most aptly use your number skills with. Keeping track of your business’ taxes is quite distinct from identifying statistical trends in web-user behavior. And what do you enjoy doing? Our enjoyment of activities is often linked to our ability to actually perform them. You can also look into services that are designed to help you identify your core strengths.

Confidence Booster

Not only will establishing your core strengths give your company greater clout in the marketplace, it will also create a confidence booster. A solid grasp on your abilities arms you against the anxieties that can accompany major business challenges. All you have to do in those situations is take a deep breath and remind yourself of how your core strengths will power you through to a successful end. You can also use specific successes in your past to bolster yourself for new challenges. For example, I ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain and now use that as my mantra when things seem to be stacking up against me. Find a point of power, a specific success you’ve experienced, and use it to fuel your next triumph.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

Marketing Can Be a Fire Extinguisher for Your Company

Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Just in Case....
Creative Commons License photo credit: Lola_TC

If business was easy then we’d all be rich. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try to run successful businesses things can go awfully wrong in the blink of an eye. Perhaps one of the computer processors you sell caused thousands of businesses to crash, but it turns out that the factory you outsourced your design to is the one to blame. You’ll need massive fire control to prevent your company from taking the blame — use your marketing to extinguish the sales-killing flames.

Your Website Isn’t Enough

Don’t expect your website to provide sufficient fire control. Nowadays, with all the new social media tools popping up, people rarely get their information directly from the source. The truth is that there’s an extremely slim chance that Internet users will consult with your website in order to validate the nasty claims against your company. Besides, it’s like believing a four-year-old child that they didn’t dip into the cookie jar when they’ve got cookie crumbs on their face. No matter how well your website content is worded, it will always maintain a certain feeling of propaganda. Internet users are much likelier to believe auxiliary marketing pieces than your website.

You must take swift and mobile action against damaging claims — your website is static and can’t maintain sufficient spin control.

Anti-arsonist Article Submissions

Among the best auxiliary marketing pieces you can arm your business with are high-exposure article submissions. Submitting a series of articles grants a simple and cost-effective way to smother these nasty fires as soon as they break out. You can easily execute an article blast that goes out all over the Web as well as to specific recipients that you designate. This content-rich platform supports a double-prong approach, allowing you to both explain away the claims made against your company as well as provide supporting information as to why you’re actually one of the most solid companies out there.

Fight Fire with Fire

There’s a solid chance that part of the damage being done to your company is through various social media tools. Fight fire with fire by using social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook. If these social media tools are being used to talk trash about your company then use the same platforms to correct the damaging misconceptions out there. Caveat: Hold your head high and address these misconceptions and bad-mouthing with patient, thorough and information-based responses — do not get sucked into the fray or you will only damage your company’s image further!

Another benefit to making use of such tools is that they often feature an application that connects your social media content to your website and other marketing pieces (E.g. Your Twitter.com account > Settings > Connections). This delivers simultaneous updates to your website which can help save you from having to double your efforts and repeat the same message across platforms.

Blog Away the Blame

Blogs provide an excellent opportunity to share the real deal. Suppress the urge to include dozens of explanation points. Keep it simple and convey an honest and transparent response for comprehensive damage control. Remember, as the incorrectly accused, you should be considered innocent until proven guilty. Maintain integrity and poise in your marketing messages to garner the most belief from your audience.

To get the most out of this approach you’ll need to already have a steady blog established. No one’s going to believe your fire-control piece if it’s the first post your company has written. It will be immediately obvious that the blog was set up simply to put out a fire. Your message will be bolstered by the existence of a solid collection of previously written blogs, adding vital credibility to your fire-explanation post.

So get started right away! Go out there, create good content, and spread it far and wide!

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

Hitting Hot Buttons on the Head Is Key to Selling More

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Buttons
We mean the other kind of buttons!
Creative Commons License photo credit: ahisgett

Marketing plans often fall short of their goal because they failed to zero in on their prospects’ hot buttons.

Your marketing plan must establish finite targets before you launch your campaign. Get a lock on the factors that trigger emotional responses from your prospects and you’ll figure out how to best present your offer.

Bang on those hot buttons

Hot buttons go far beneath the surface. Your product or service is not what’s in question. It’s what they help your target audience accomplish. Look for alternate dimensions to your product to hone in on the best way to present it. Use article marketing to effectively hit hot buttons right on the head.

Hot buttons consist of fears, worries, goals, aspirations and basic needs. They are all directly tied to people’s emotions. Many types of marketing simply don’t have the right platform to thoroughly appeal to emotions. On the other hand, article marketing grants you the perfect opportunity to connect better with your audience. For one, articles automatically have a better chance of digging below a prospect’s surface, since article readers are naturally more attentive. If they’re taking enough time to read your full article, then you’ve got enough time to truly speak to them. Whereas, T.V., radio and online banner ads can only quickly shout at someone and hope for the best.

Start by conducting some market research first to get a lock on demographics (sex, race, age, income, geographical location) and psychographics (attitudes, personality, values, lifestyles and interests). Study these factors  to narrow down your target audience and understand which emotions to appeal to. Don’t try and sell convenience items to single-parent homes—they’re looking for supplemental income opportunities and products or services that will grant them some time freedom. Push the convenience factor with a more affluent audience instead.

Accurately targeted hot buttons create a eureka moment, helping your prospects discover the perfect solution for their needs. Figure out what keeps them up at night and they’ll thank you with their credit cards for the full-night’s sleep. The fun part about crafting these articles for your business is that you won’t necessarily address the actual needs of your prospects. Play to their emotions—get a reaction from their heart and their brain will automatically follow suit. Consumers put their wallets away instead of taking them out when they think with their brain and not with their heart!

Learn to hone in on your audience

One of the biggest benefits article marketing provides is the ability to try again. Even if your market research led you astray and you missed hitting your prospect’s hot button on the head, you can make multiple attempts through an automated series of articles. Track the links back to your site and you’ll know what’s working and what needs to be improved.

And if you just can’t seem to figure out what’s most important to your prospects, feel free to simply ask them. Directly sampling your target audience through tools such as online polls and e-mail questionnaires will provide you with some excellent insight. Provide them with incentives such as discounts on your products to encourage them to provide helpful feedback. This not only increases the quantity of responses it also encourages more direct sales!

Understanding hot buttons not only helps you bring in first-time buyers it also encourages brand loyalty. Among the platforms for building solid business relationships is the understanding of what makes your clients sad or happy, what they value and what motivates them. Automate your article distribution to build an ongoing relationship. Build up value over time and continuously provide them with points that they can use to assuage their hot buttons.

Human behavior is a deeply rooted, almost unchangeable element. Never try to change your prospects’ behaviors. Instead, put yourself in their shoes and adapt your marketing messages accordingly.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

Excited Prospects Buy Every Time — Learn How to Create that Excitement

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Make your prospects more likely to buy with the power of excitement. It’s a simple formula — the more excited someone is about a product or service, the fewer doubts they’ll have and the likelier they’ll be to spend money with you. Article marketing provides an ideal platform for creating comprehensive excitement — traditional sales pitches are dead!

One of the most powerful aspects of creating excitement is that you develop a wedge between your prospects and your competitors. You could have the same exact product or service as another company (extremely likely in today’s saturated online marketplace), but the right degree of excitement is all it takes to differentiate your business from the others. Generating interest and excitement will make you an orange when all your competitors simply seem like lemons — you’ll get picked every time.

Generate authentic excitement

Your writing needs to create excitement without sounding cheap. The last thing you want to do is sound like an infomercial — it creates doubt and skepticism. Articles create the right type of excitement by demonstrating solid value. Provide people with useful information in an interesting fashion and you set up the perfect mindset for buying.

You need to achieve an optimal balance of excitement and reality — be careful to avoid exaggerated claims. Assume you’re addressing an intelligent audience with the ability to discern realistic claims from miracle cures. Assume that because it’s true!

Take a look at these examples:

“Never suffer from a headache again!” Ridiculous.

“Our business offers a variety of services.” Okay.

“Our business offers a variety of services to help you with your needs.” Better.

“Our budget tools and friendly attitude help you achieve financial freedom.” Best!

Article marketing gives you the opportunity to generate interest and excitement about your offer by providing real-life applications. That’s why the fourth option is best. Don’t just tell people—tell them why and how. This relates to the classic feature and benefit combination. Never leave a feature hanging by itself. Explain what’s in it for your readers.

Quality article writing pairs a feature with a benefit to cement its application. Your prospects want specific questions answered, information that they can use right away, and realistic solutions. Your prospects are guaranteed to get excited by learning about simple solutions they can apply to their daily lives.

Hit your audience’s hot buttons

Your best bet is to forget about all the money you can make and always keep in mind how your products can help others. This will help you maintain the prospect’s perspective, which gives you the keys to their hot buttons. Figure out your target audience’s most frequent problems and worries as well as their aspirations and you’ll set your sales on fire.

Another highly effective way to generate excitement is to make your prospects feel like pioneers. There’s great excitement in feeling like you’re among the first to try something new. Promote the impression, without exaggeration or deception, that they will be part of a new wave of technology, cutting-edge business practices, innovative techniques, breakthrough daily living practices and so on. Make it novel! Make them proud to be early adopters. People want to feel like leaders and you can give that to them.

You can also fall back on the time-tested technique of creating urgency. Creating urgency promotes excitement and catalyzes people into action. Some classic examples would be providing limited-time offers, first-come-first-served offers, and letting them know that supplies are limited. You do need to take some caution with this approach though. For example, if you claim it’s a limited-time offer make sure it is indeed limited! You’re guaranteed to breed skepticism if you continue to extend a limited-time offer.

However, if you haven’t hit a required sales quota and must extend your offer then you need to provide a believable explanation: “We’ve received many messages of heartfelt thanks for our sale price, so we’ve decided to extend our special offer.” Or, simply try hard-line honesty: “We have some more widgets remaining at this low price, so we’ve decided to offer this special offer for an additional week.”

The excitement you create will not only encourage prospects to buy from you every time, it also sets you up for viral marketing. People are always more likely to talk about or refer your business when they’re excited about it!

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

Article Marketing Savvy: Are all Article Submission Services Created Equal?

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Is article marketing a significant part of your web marketing strategy? If so, then the article submission service you choose is crucial. It may be tempting to choose the one that costs the least or has the flashiest website. However, this would be like buying a car simply because it’s your favorite color or because the dealership offers you a free television. The product itself may not be worth the price.

All article submission services, in reality, are not created equal. Just like any product that you buy, you’ll be able to find multiple “brands” and varieties. You’d never buy the first house or computer that you looked at. Neither should you sign up with the first article submission service you stumble across. Always shop around.

How, exactly, do you determine which article submission service will provide the most bang for your buck? Comparing features and benefits is a good place to start. The most important ones to consider when you compare are:

1) How many publishers will an article submission service distribute your articles to? An effective article marketing strategy dictates that you get your article out to as many publishers as possible. One service provider may upload your article to 100 publishers. Another may submit it to 300. This should play a role in determining which article submission service to use.

2) Are your articles reaching their intended destinations? Internet article directories come and go, literally, on a weekly basis. New ones keep emerging while old ones sometimes fold.

How old is the list of directories that your article submission service sends articles to? A list that’s older than a few months could already be outdated. Your article submission service may claim to send your article to 300 directories. However, a list that’s too old may mean that 20 of those directories don’t even exist anymore. You, the consumer, will not get what you paid for in this case.

3) Does the article submission service follow up on submissions? Most article submission services submit articles electronically. Sometimes e-glitches occur as a result. Articles may not end up at their intended destinations. Will the article submission service follow up on these “glitches” and submit your article manually if this occurs?

Sometimes other errors occur. For example, an article may not be formatted in the way a publisher wants. Again, this requires follow-up and possible manual submission. Will your article submission service do this for you?

4) How will your article submission service communicate with you after you order? When you hand over your credit card information, you are trusting that your service provider will do what you’re asking. Otherwise, you’re losing your money. How will you know that you’re receiving what you’ve paid for?

A reputable article submission service will provide you with reports on the status of your submissions. Once the submission process is completed, will your service provider alert you? Will your service provider let you know if there were issues with any of the submissions? Will they let you know when those issues get resolved? Open, detailed and regular communication should always be part of what you pay for.

You may have noticed that “cost” isn’t on this list. That’s because cost is relative, and not all article submission services are created equal. The more benefits a particular article submission service offers, the more they’ll probably charge.

Decide which ones are most important to you and then pay what is necessary to get the best possible results. It’s probably worth paying a little bit more to get the best possible results that meet your specific needs.

To your success,

Mike Lawson

Mike Lawson is a freelance consultant to internet marketers. His Professional Writing Service provides quality content for article marketing automation programs.

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